The Church of St. John of the Hermits is a symbol of the city of Palermo and it is an episode of its rich repertoire of architecture. Its red domes that give an impression of the East are perhaps the best known of the city.

Although today it is desecrated, it was once the residence of the abbot confessor of the king. It was built by Roger II in 1132, probably over the remnants of an Arab mosque. Its name comes from the ancient monastery of St. Hermes, which stood, at the time of Gregory the Great, in the very same place.

The compact space outside oppose some forms of games inside, with geometric and angular spread of light that filters through the openings, playing an important role in the perception of space. In the esoteric symbolism the square and the cube give an idea of clarity and stability - the symbol of man and the human as the circle and the sphere, giving the feeling of movement, perfection; eternity is therefore the divine sphere . The unit of space is perfectly preserved by the harmony of numbers and proportions, depending on mathematical aesthetics of the Middle Ages.